


Tastes of Reality

by Sparrowsverse



Series: Fragments [3]
Category: Bandom, Doctor Who, The Who
Genre: Gen, Magnificent Seven ATF, Temporary Character Death, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-21
Updated: 2012-01-21
Packaged: 2017-10-29 22:10:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/324697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparrowsverse/pseuds/Sparrowsverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Keith Moon became Keith Moon of The Who.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tastes of Reality

**Author's Note:**

> I wish I could claim ownership to this wonderful ficlet, but it must go to Miss Enola Jones AKA jennytork. She wrote this wonderful story in a spur of the moment on aim chat while I was showing her my first story for this series. She has given me permission to post this wonderful story.

It was their second gig playing together and the Who were celebrating after. Their sound was complete now. "To Keith!" Roger laughed, toasting the lanky redhead who grinned crookedly through a face full of freckles. "The Gingerbread Boy who stole our hearts!"

"Not to mention battered your only drum kit into bits," Keith retorted, his bass voice teasing and his deep blue eyes sparkling with mirth.

"Hey, we won't go there," John rumbled, making them all laugh.

The laugh lasted until the door blew open. Thinking it was their manager, nobody paid much mind.

And then they saw the gun. "What the hell..." Pete gasped.

"You!" the man yelled. "Your band.... you're fakers! You're not one of us!"

Keith looked at the man's eyes. "Oh, f***, he's so high he doesn't know what he's doing!"

But there was no time to elaborate. The man's finger started squeezing the trigger.

Keith lunged, knocking John out of the way. His deep blue eyes went huge as he felt a searing pain shoot through the lower left part of his chest.

"Oh, HELL!" John screeched. "Keith's been SHOT!"

The gunman turned the gun toward himself then, and found himself charged by Roger and Pete.

Keith toppled forward into John's arms. "Keith?" he gasped, turning him over. "Keith, hold on...”

A wan smile formed on Keith's freckled face as his eyes -- glazing and half-masted -- looked into John’s. “This....wasn't how I.... wanted to tell you."

"Tell us what?" Pete asked after he and Roger had drug the man's unconscious form -- he'd not had a chance to shoot himself, they'd overpowered him and knocked him out -- into the hallway. They were alone.

They crouched beside him. "Don’t try to talk," John said, caressing his cheek. "Don't try to talk, okay? Just breathe."

"I'll....I'll be fine, John. B-but you have to let me go."

"I'll not let you go," John snarled. "You're not goin' anywhere!"

He shook his head. "If you're.... if you're touching me.... I'll t-turn into something b-based off you."

"You're not makin' sense," Roger said.

Keith reached and took Roger's hand. He pressed it to the right side of his chest. His own chest.

Roger's eyes went huge. "........there's a heart over here!"

"Your heart's on the right side?" John asked, his hand going over the left side of Keith's chest.

"Holy flaming HELL! He's got TWO HEARTS!"

"Let... let me go."

"No," John said. "No, I won't. You're my little brother and I'm gonna take care of you."

Keith shook his head. "I'll... my race... has a way of cheating death..... It’s.... it's   
happening... I'll not leave you."

"Good," they chorused.

"I just won't.... won't look like this." He winced. "My last body... my last life... oh RASSI--"

And his body convulsed, light flaring from every opening in his clothing, from his mouth and ears and eyes. His voice rose in an unearthly scream.

And -- despite having to close his eyes against the onslaught of energy -- John held on.

The light ended in a wail and the body slumped against John's chest. The only thing visible was a shock of black hair.

"....black?" Pete was the first to recover. He reached out and turned Keith's face to them. The eyes were closed, but the features were completely different.

He was smaller and broader. More evenly proportioned. The freckles were gone. His new features held high cheekbones and a smaller mouth.

"Bloody hell," Roger breathed. "He looks a lot like you, John."

"You called him your little brother," Pete breathed. "And he BECAME your little brother."

He groaned the voice a tenor that was shocking after the deep bass they had grown used to. Eyes so brown they were nearly black opened. And opened. And OPENED.

"Shit, I've never seen eyes so wide," Pete breathed.

Those eyes flicked to him. "....hullo," he breathed. "....m'Keith."

"Yeah," John rumbled, grinning through his tears. "We know."


End file.
